In Reply to: Your earliest trip to Bali ? - when ? posted by sinter on Wednesday, 31. March 2004 at 16:10 Bali Time:
My first trip was onboard one of three small navy ships back in 1969. We were met on the wharf at Benoa harbour by members of the local Indonesian navy a gamelin band and a group of traditionally clad dancers who spread flower petals just in front of our feet as we walked down the wharf for an official welcome. The Grand Bali Beach Hotel had just opened, the original one, most of the roads were unpaved and Denpaser airport was a genuine outback country airstrip. Apart from in Denpaser city there was very little in the way of shops selling "touristy" style goodies although you could still get very good quality carvings and paintings direct from the tradespeople. Bottom line is, although I travel Asia a lot, I was so smitten by the place enough to have returned about thirty times since that initial visit. Am still dreaming about that first "Lord Jim" type of arrival.
Cheers
Maverick